Hospitals, A to F

The more patients know, the better choices they make

December 01, 2012

An exterior view August 10, 2011 of the southwest corner of Stroger County Hospital in Chicago. (Chris Walker)

Here's some good news from a new hospital report card: The Chicago metropolitan region had more hospitals score A's — 33 of them — than any other metro region in the country. If you're planning a hospital stay, check the list compiled by the nonprofit Washington D.C.-based Leapfrog Group at leapfroggroup.org.

These grades reflect the risk that a patient will suffer a preventable medical error, infection or other injury while hospitalized, the group says. The higher the grade, the lower the risk.

Leapfrog is a group of large employers and purchasers of health care, including Boeing, General Motors and Federal Express. Leapfrog members use information like the hospital report cards in contracting with health plans, and to help steer employees toward higher quality health care.

Four local hospitals scored F's: Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center on Chicago's South Side, Loretto Hospital on the West Side, Norwegian American Hospital on the Northwest Side and Roseland Community Hospital on the Far South Side. None returned our calls for comment. The area's major public hospital, Stroger Hospital of Chicago, earned a B.

These rankings aren't the final word on hospital quality. But they merit attention as an indication of how well, or poorly, hospitals are performing in preventing infections and injuries.

Hospitals can improve quality. Since Leapfrog released its initial rankings in June, about 1 in 4 hospitals surveyed nationally — and a similar number in Illinois — boosted its patient safety ratings by at least one grade. That's in just six months. Those higher ratings typically reflect a reduction in errors, accidents and injuries that harm patients unnecessarily. The flip side: 445 hospitals — 19 percent of the 2,618 graded — declined by at least one grade.

"Medical mistakes kill enough people each week to fill four jumbo jets. But these mistakes go largely unnoticed by the world at large, and the medical community rarely learns from them. The same preventable mistakes are made over and over again, and patients are left in the dark about which hospitals have significantly better (or worse) safety records than their peers."

Fortunately, that is now changing. Leapfrog isn't the only organization illuminating hospital performance to help patients. Medicare now posts hospital readmission rates and other quality measures on its Hospital Compare website at hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. Illinois has an extensive hospital report card, healthcarereportcard.illinois.gov, online since 2009.

All of this is vital so people can make informed decisions about where to seek treatment.

Even hospitals that earned A's this time around know they have more work to do. Too many patients are released from hospitals only to be readmitted within a month, often due to complications caused by poor care. These rankings keep the pressure on. The more patients know, the better choices they make.